A Partial Rememberance of a Puerto Rican Childhood Analysis

In "A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood," Judith Cofer accomplishes three powerful achievements: she gives details on the stories of her family experiences, shows her family stories in a strong imaginative language, and points out how family stories can take over a person's life. This essay seems to be very tricky because she goes from one story to another. Cofer's claim would be very difficult to understand if she started with one story; instead, she should finish explaining the initial story before moving on to the next one. Instead, Cofer shows how a woman can potentially go crazy if her man mistreats her. The essay is divided into thirteen paragraphs, each separated numerically, which makes it difficult to decipher each part and its intention. She wants to show how each paragraph is distinctively different, but in the end, comes together cohesively to explain the complete idea. Paragraphs 1 and 2 describe how women in the family gathered together as a group, conversing about their lives on the island. Paragraphs 3, 4, and 5 narrates Cofer's childhood, with Mama telling the story while Aunt Laura is being engaged by its strong ideals. Paragraphs 6, 8, 11, and 12 explains the story of Maria and Aunt Nena and gives strong explanations to support her story and how it is similar to someone else. In paragraph 7, Cofer describes her experience being raised as a Navy brat who was both Puerto Rican and American and how Maria influenced her. She wants to give us content about herself. In paragraph 13, Cofer includes ideals that women are being fooled by people, ending the story with laughter of women. She gives an effective sentence to warn the audience to not be fooled by others and that something might happen in the future. In Paragraph 1 the author opens a long sentence explaining that "at three or four o'clock in the afternoon, the women in the family gathered in Mama's living room to tell stories" (66). This statement explains female and men should...